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Show 3 Bank - the Bank with a Heart Apparently there was too much heart. The bank went under in 1921 and Latigo went bankrupt He then took a job building roads with a span of mules anc Mary went to work for th telephone company. Even though he was in financial trouble, Latigo helped post bond for Charley Glass, the Negro foreman of the Tumer-Taylo-r Cattle Company of Moab. Glass killed a Basque sheepman in 1921 in a gunfight over grazing rights. - was serving as sheriff of San Juan County, he was jailed in Moab for disturbing the peace. The incident cost him his job. Latigo owned the Blue Goose Saloon where the cowboys did their drinking. The watering hole was a log cabin on the main street in Monticello. Finally, it is believed Latigo was the model for Lassiter in Riders of the Purple Sage by Water, sheep and mining Two articles published in the Deseret Evening News give a glimpse of life in the first decade of Monticello. On January 6, 1896 J. A. B. (Joseph Barton?) wrote to the editor of the state paper. His letter appeared under the headline Blue Mountains Excitement and .reads as Zane Grey. However, there is another side to Latigo Gordon. He arrived in the Monticello area in 1886, about the same time his follows: Great excitement prevailed throughout the Blue Mountains on New Years Day. Some forty miners stationed themselves at the summit of the mountain for the purpose of relocating and locating claims that the annual work had not been done on. They were on the ground prompt at 12 oclock midnight New Years Eve and inside two hours some forty claims had been relocated. Great excitement prevailed throughout the mother married Harold Carlisle, one of the owners of the Carlisle Cattle Company. Latigo took on the job of ranch ir .X night. Bonfires burned from all the prominent peaks in the range. Guns were fired on all sides, but, luckily, nobody was hurt. A special correspondent wrote an article on water published in the June 26, 1900 edition of the Deseret Evening News. Additionally, he used the occasion to complain about sheep. We are having delightful weather. Although a little rain would be very acceptable as well as profitable, our fields look nice and green with alfalfa, but the grain does not look so well. But very little snow fell in the Blue Mountains last winter. We did not expect any water, but up to present time our creeks are as full as usual, and we will cut an average crop of hay. Our town appears to one passing through almost like a deserted village, fully half of the houses being empty, as so many have gone away this spring on account of snow falling. Some have gone to Moab, some to Montezuma County, Colorado, Uncle Dan Dalton and family being among the latter. We have plenty of sheep in this country but they belong to our friends in Bluff City. Some of the herd get a little reckless sometimes and venture too close to town, and on our creek this causes unpleasant words and feelings. All we ask is to be respected in our rights. This country is a large one, in fact we are country or land poor. If Monticello people had sheep or cattle of their own to eat up the good grass, it would be well for us. Remember when . . . W. E. Latigo" Gordon Courtesy Margaret Halls Latigo Gordon . . . by Jay W. Palmer W. E. Bill Gordon, commonly called Latigo, was a hero of mine when I was a growing boy. I was around six or seven . years old when I discovered him. I opened an old trunk my family had and found a pair of n cowboy boots and a holster. My dad told me he bought the boots and holster, ) six-gu- the trunk, some haying equipment, several horse halters, a bridle, five tanned sheepskins, and a branding iron from Latigo Gordon. The branding iron, a figure two, was Latigos brand. I wore Latigos boots and practiced draw fast using Latigos my holster and my grandfathers whenever I could Colt .45 peaceI out the boots and wore maker. almost wore out the holster. My greatest glory was wearing Latigos boots and single-actio- n holster to the Monticello Halloween party when I was in the sixth grade. I dressed in cowboy duds and on one boot a spur I found on our ranch. My dad would not let me use grandfathers peacemaker, so a friend of mine brought his fathers .38 to complete my outfit. I won first prize. As I grew up, I became steeped in the legend of Latigo Gordon. Our ranch house sits about 500 feet from where the old road to Spring Creek ranch intersected with the road to Monticello from the Double Cabins at Carlisle Ranch on Vega Creek. This intersection is at the crest of a ridge where the a legend could first see Monticello. They called it Hurrah Ridge in honor of the cowboys yelling and gunfire that accompanied them as they spurred their cow ponies on a two-mil-e race to Monticello and civilization. I found many cartridge shells and even some 0 and 45-7shells along that road. I 44-4- 0 45-6- 0 found a womans silver mounted spur. Whose I do not know, but perhaps it belonged to Mrs. Carlisle or Mrs. Gordon. I learned much about Latigos toughness. I learned he had four fingers on his right hand pulled out while roping a large steer. According to it didnt harm his shooting eye or his roping ability. He could still shoot holes in whiskey jugs carried by drunken cowboys returning from town. I learned Latigo talked with Tom McCarty, Matt Warner and Butch Cassidy at Carlisle Ranch in late June 1889. This was when they were fleeing a posse after robbing the San Miguel National Bank in legend, Telluride, Colorado. Ten years later, almost to the day, Latigo saw Harvey Logan (Kid Curry) at Carlisle. Logan had robbed a train in Wilcox, Wyoming and was fleeing the Pinkerton detective Suringo. McCarty, Warner, Cassidy and Logan were all well known in the La Sal and Blue Mountain area. I learned that Latigo had gone to jail for feeding a horse to the pigs. The horse was named Old Billy and did not belong to him. I learned that while Latigo foreman. Carlisle Cattle Company was part of the Kansas and New Mexico Land and Cattle Company, an English corporation. At its peak, the Kansas and New Mexico was one of the largest cattle operations in the West, running over 30,000 head on an enormous range. Bounded on the south by North Montezuma Creek, the range extended west into the Blue Mountain, passed east of the Piute Spring well in Colorado, and extended north t deep into Dry Valley. An drift fence was built in 1883. It crossed just south of where the Monticello library is in 1988. The range was so large, cattle in the eastern part wintered in the Gallegos Canyon area south of Farmington, New Mexico. Cattle in the western part wintered in Dry Valley. In 1885, the Carlisle Hip, Side and east-wes- Shoulder bunched almost 10,000 head of cattle in a spring roundup at the foot of Peters Hill. Latigo was responsible for the building of Gordon Reservoir north of Monticello, which opened up irrigation for many acres of land along Vega and Spring creeks. He even took time out to marry a Monticello Mormon belle. He and Mary Bronson reared their five children at Latigo left southeastern Utah in 1926 to live with his daughter Jessie in Ogden, about all he had left was his faithful dog and the Legend When of Latigo Gordon. He died in 1947. The library by Ila Robson In the 30s, when we moved U Monticello from Salt Lake t have my family take over th new power plant, it was a grea disappointment to find the onlj library consisted of a few books The books were locked in i room in the courthouse, whicl was opened now and then i: someone wanted a book. Latei on, the small library was opened for several hours a day Our family all loved to read While in Salt Lake, we hac subscribed to two newspapers and several magazines, and had access to a large public library. When World War II started all efforts were going to the war. Teachers were scarce. The school basement was turned into a study hall to relieve the pressure on the few teachers we had. All children not in a class at a certain hour reported to the basement study, where there was a study hall teacher. Books were needed. The school furnished some and the county was glad to give us theirs. Whitehouse until it burned down. They then moved to Monticello and eventually to Moab. The uranium mill was opened, with an influx of new children and their parents. Several of the women, who belonged to the Womens After selling out in 1912, Latigo joined a group of Society, appealed to the organization in other areas to Carlisle Ranch in the developers who were opening up 1,500 acres of irrigated farmland at Indian Creek. About 1914, my father, J. Ward Palmer, and my grandfather, J. W. Jack Palmer, were at the Dugout in Indian Creek. Grandfather, who was forest ranger at the time, became ill. Latigo quit working, quickly harnessed a team of horses and brought grandfather to Monticello in a buckboard. After he moved to Moab, Latigo helped found and served as a director of the Moab State Auxiliary of the Metalurgical donate books. We were soon overrun with books. Reta Bartell, Dorothy Adams and Dora Adams distributed some of the books to all the schools in the county. These three women, along with others, worked to get our present libraries. Dorothy Adams was paid a tribute at a State Library Convention that I attended for the good work she had done to establish the libraries in our county. We are a little late, but we say Thank you, Dorothy! |